Although I’ve never read any of Larry McMurtry‘s books and never watched the Lonesome Dove TV series, I had enough awareness of them to enjoy the intersection of fiction and reality found at this historic cemetery in Weatherford, Texas (about an hour’s drive west from where we are staying). The main characters of McMurtry’s novels are said to be loosely based on Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving, famed mid 19th century Texas cattle ranchers, as well as formerly enslaved Bose Ikard, cowhand and close friend of Goodnight for many years.

Oliver Loving’s burial site decorated with bandanas

Served with me four years on the Goodnight-Loving Trail, never shirked duty or disobeyed an order, rode with me in many stampedes, participated in three engagements with Comanches, splendid behavior — C. Goodnight

Parker County Courthouse from Greenwood Cemetery